abfolutely neglect, fo as to fatisfy himself with having no hypothefis on the fubject. We certainly find the apoftles, as well as the reft of the Jews, without any knowledge of the divinity of Chrift, with whom they lived and converfed as a man; and if they ever became acquainted with it, there must have been a time when it was either difcovered by them, or made known to them; and the effects of the acquifition, or the communication of extraordinary knowledge, are, in general, proportionably confpicuous.

Had we no written hiftory of our Saviour's life, or of the preaching of the apoftles, or only fome very concife one; ftill fo very extraordinary an article as this would hardly have been unknown, much lefs when the history is fo full and circumftantial as it is.

Had there been any pretence for imagining, that the Jews, in our Saviour's time, had any knowledge of the doctrine of the trinity, and that they expected the fecond perfon in it in the character of their Meffiah, the question I propofe would have been neediefs. But nothing can be more

evident

evident than that, whatever fome may fancy with respect to more ancient times, every notion of a trinity was obliterated from the minds of the Jews in our Saviour's time: It is therefore not only a curious, but a ferious and important queftion, When was it introduced, and by what fteps? I have anfwered it on my hypothefis, of its being an innovation and a corruption of the chriftian doctrine; let others do the fame, on the idea of its being an effential part of it. Let us then fee, what it is that the chriftian Fathers, who themselves believed the preexistence and divinity of Chrift, and who were much nearer than we are to the time when the gospel was promulgated, have faid on this fubject.

CHAP

CHAPTER III.

Of the Conduct of our Saviour himself, with reSpect to his own fuppofed Pre-existence and Divinity.

F we look into the gofpel hiftory, we

fhall find, that all that our Saviour himfelf taught, or infinuated, were his divine miffion in general, or his being the Meffiah in particular; with the doctrine of the refurrection, and that of himfelf coming again. to raise the dead and judge the world. Thefe doctrines, accompanied with moral inftructions, and reproofs of the Pharifees, for corrupting the law of God, made up the whole of his preaching. He never told his difciples that he had pre-existed, or that he had had any thing to do before he came into the world; much less that he had made the world, and governed it; and there is abun

dant

dant evidence that this was admitted by the chriftian Fathers.

fage:

Athanafius expreffes his fenfe of the difficulty with which the Jews admitted that Chrift was any thing more than a man very strongly in the following paf "He calls his humanity the fon of "man; for the Jews, always oppofing God, "held a twofold blafphemy with respect to "Chrift; for fome of them being offended "at his flesh, viz. the fon of man, thought "him to be a prophet, but not God, and "called him a glutton and a wine-bibber; "who were forgiven, for it was then the

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beginning of the preaching, and the world "could not yet believe him to be God, "who was made man; wherefore Chrift fays, Whofoever shall speak a word against "the fon of man, viz. his body, it shall be forgiven him. For I will venture to say, "that not even the bleffed difciples them"felves were fully perfuaded concerning his divinity, till the holy fpirit came upon them at the day of Pentecoft. For when they "faw him after his refurrection, fome wor

VOL. III.

F

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hipped

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fhipped, but others doubted, yet they were not on that account condemned *.”

The Fathers fay, that whenever our Saviour faid any thing that might lead his difciples to think that he was of a nature fuperior to that of man, they were offended, and that he conciliated their efteem whenever he reprefented himself as a mere man, fuch as they expected a prophet, and the Meffiah to be. Chryfoftom reprefents John the Baptist likewife as gaining profelytes to Chrift, when he fpake of him in low terms, but as deterring them when he feemed to fpeak of him in a higher capacity.

* Την δε ανθρωποτητα αυτά υιον ανθρωπου. νυν γαρ φησίν εδοξάσθη ο υιός τε άνθρωπο, οι εν αει τω θεω προσκςυονίες Ι«δαίοι. διτζήν προς χρισον την βλασφημίαν εκέκληντο οι μέν γαρ τη σαρκι αυτό, ήγεν τω υιω το ανθρωπε προσκοπο Τούλες, προφήτην αύτου, αλλ' ο Θεον είναι ενομίζον, καὶ φαγον αυτον και οινοποιών εκαλέν, οις καὶ συζγνώμην εδωκεν αρχή γαρ αν το κηρυγματος, και όπω εχώρει ο κοσμος θεον πιςεύειν γενομενον ανθρωπον. διο φησιν ο χρισίς όξι, ος αν ειπη λόγον καλα Τις υιού το ανθρωπο, ήγουν τα σωματος αυτό, αφεθήσεται αύτως Τολμω γαρ λέγειν οτι δε αυτοί οι μακαριοι μαθηται το τεο λεμον περί της αυτό θεότητος είχον φρόνημα, έως το πνεύμα το αγίεν αυτοίς τη πεντηκοση επεφοίτησεν. επει και μετατην άναδασιν ίδοντες αυτον, οι μεν προσεκύνησαν, οι δε εδιςασαν αλλ' εκ εκ τετε κατεκρίθησαν. Sermo major de fide, in Montfaucen's Colle&ion, vol. 2. p. 39.

Obferve,